Friday Night Memories

Posted: Friday, October 08, 1999

Editor's note: In the last football season of the 1900s, this is the sixth in the weekly series of Texas Panhandle natives sharing their high school memories. Mike Boxwell quarterbacked the 1961 Dumas Demons to the Class 3A state championship. Boxwell earned all-state honors his senior season, scoring 136 points and averaging 8.1 yards per carry during the regular season. Boxwell had 43 career interceptions, ranking him seventh nationally, according to the 1999 National High School Sports Record Book. Today, Boxwell and his bother, Jim, own Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors in Amarillo.

"I feel extremely privileged and blessed to have been the quarterback on the 1961 Dumas Demons state championship football team. The foundation was laid by the teams of 1959 and 1960. My 1961 teammates really deserve most of the credit for the championship. The talent and ability of the linemen and fullback were incredible.

"The entire season was a dream come true. Dumas had not won a district title since 1933. After opening season losses to great Palo Duro and Borger teams, we advanced without a close game until the title game. We won 6-0 over Nederland and it was nail-biter to the very end.

"My fondest memories, however, are of the people of Dumas. The pride the community developed with each victory as the season progressed was unbelievable. For instance, I was stopped for speeding going home from lunch. After the police officer saw my license, all he was concerned with was that he might have upset me for the game that week. We were placed on high pedestals.

"The people of Dumas lined the highway for five miles as we left the championship game in Dallas; then the school song was played on a bridge and away we went. We represented everyone in Dumas on that playing field.

"I am eternally grateful for the lessons in discipline that I learned from my three junior high coaches and Coach Burl Bartlett at Dumas, and seeing it continued with my sons, Brad and Bart, playing for Coach Larry Dippel and his staff at Amarillo High."

Who's Hot

A 5-0 start doesn't come around that often in Hooker, Okla. Last time the Bulldogs went through the first half of the season unbeaten? Try 1975.

But the experienced Bulldogs, from District 1-1A in the Panhandle, have won their first five games handily, outscoring their opponents, 140-40. With 16 returning starters, head coach Scott Schier was hoping for results like this.

"I felt like we'd be a lot better," said Schier, whose first Hooker team went 4-6 last year. "And some of the people we've played have been down a little bit, losing a big senior class. Still, our level of play has jumped up, as well as our attitude and work ethic."

Hooker has parlayed a tough defense and a balanced offense in its first five games, which includes a 2-0 start in 1-1A play. The Bulldogs have used a combination of the wishbone, veer and some one-back sets to average 28 points a game.

"Our base is the wishbone, but we got so many receivers that we'll use the one-back a lot," Schier said. "We throw the ball out of that. It's easier for us to switch back and forth from that, and it can be hard on the defense.

"But to me, it all starts with defense," Schier said. "We've been pretty strong defensively. We're giving up about a touchdown a game, and some of that is coming late in the game."

Hooker is allowing 184.8 yards. Seth Parker, an outside linebacker moved to the middle because of an injury, had 26 tackles last week in a 34-6 win over Texhoma. Martens at strong safety, end Mik Simpson, and Huxman, in the secondary, have helped solidified that group.

The true test for Hooker is tonight when the Bulldogs go 20 miles down the road to face No. 1-ranked Turpin, which has a couple of state title under its belt.

"The pressure is on them," Schier said. "We're trying to approach it if we do the things that we're capable of, don't make mistakes, we got a chance to win the ballgame."